Of the 16 Portuguese identified by the Portuguese government who were still in Afghanistan, only one remains in the country. At Expresso on Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities confirmed that all other citizens of the country have already left the country in the last hours after the opening of Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul and the resumption of repatriation flights.
This Portuguese man remains in Afghanistan and works as a firefighter, works at the airport in the Afghan capital and supports the US troops that control the site. “It stays as long as it is needed,” confirms Berta Nunes.
At the beginning of Tuesday morning, the Portuguese was with another citizen of the country, also a firefighter and who also provided support at the airport. In the meantime, he was recalled by a flight to Qatar.
There were four more Portuguese in Kabul on Monday. One of them, Paula Pedro, described moments of tension in her statements to SIC. A Portuguese woman and another Portuguese were detained because the plane on which they were going to fly to Dubai could not land at the airport. The airstrip was invaded for hours by hundreds of desperate Afghans who tried to escape and find a seat on the plane.
The airport did not open until late Monday evening.
On Sunday, the introduction of Taliban forces into Kabul ended a two-decade military campaign led by the United States and supported by its allies, including Portugal. Islamic radicals have seized the capital and power, wanting a transfer of power after the Afghan president left the country.
Thousands of Afghans in Kabul are trying to flee the country, and many have headed to the international airport, where the situation was chaotic on Monday.
Note: Corrected the total number of Portuguese. There are 16 of them, not 12, as it was originally written. At 12:25 pm, the news was supplemented with information that one of the two firefighters had already left Afghanistan.
